I am a solo war gamer endlessly searching for old Peter Laing figures, and the perfect war-game rules to use with them

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Napoleonic Battle for Bridgehead

When I first got back into wargaming, my interest peaked when I used some 15mm Heritage Napoleonics received on Christmas in the 70s. I was looking at them last week and decided to have a war-game with them again. I used scenario # 5 from ONE HOUR WARGAMES. This involved establishing a bridgehead with both sides receiving reinforcements piecemeal.

The Auustrians have found a river crossing that is unprotected. The Austrian general deploys a battery while waiting for his infantry to come up. Two French infantry regiments are coming up on its' left flank.

The first Austrian infantry regiment comes up to support the guns.

But a French light infantry regiment attacks first and forces it back.

French reinforcements come up behind the Austrian line.

One Austrian regiment brings the French light infantry under fire, distracting them from the regiment on the bridge.

The Austrian crossfire on the light infantry gives the infantry crossing the bridge time to deploy. The Austrian battery turns to try to fight off the approaching French lancers.

The lancers force back the battery and the French infantry force back the Austrian infantry.

The French lancers overrun the battery and surround the Austrian general.

The Austrians receive another regiment and counterattack. One regiment saves the general and push back the lancers.

More French infantry comes up and gets the Austrians in a crossfire. The Austrian general at this point is killed by a Swiss regiment coming on the right flank.

The French have overrun two more Austrian regiments and the light infantry regiment has broken the Austrian regiment that has been firing across the river. The Austrians fall back.

Another view of the end of the battle. The Austrians lost four units and their general, the French lost no units, although three units were down to two or one figures.

I found an old camera that works better than my cellphone and the other camera I was using. I had the gaming table set up under a window for natural light, unfortunately it was dark out before I played the game and didn't set up any more lighting.